''Flesh and Sand'' ( es, Carne y arena) is a 2017 American short
virtual reality project written and directed by
Alejandro González Iñárritu that plunges "viewers into the harsh life of an immigrant".
[Peter Aspden]
"Carne y Arena: Alejandro Iñárritu’s virtual reality project"
Financial Times, August 11, 2017 It was created by Iñárritu and cinematographer
Emmanuel Lubezki in collaboration with ILMxLAB with support from
Legendary Entertainment and the
Fondazione Prada in Italy.
''Flesh and Sand'' (''Carne y arena'') premiered at the
2017 Cannes Film Festival
The 70th Cannes Film Festival took place from 17 to 28 May 2017, in Cannes, France. Spanish film director and screenwriter Pedro Almodóvar was the President of the Jury for the festival and Italian actress Monica Bellucci hosted the opening and ...
as part of the official selection and was the first virtual reality project to ever be featured at the festival.
It was later featured at the
Prada Foundation
Fondazione Prada, co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli since 1995, is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture.
From 1993 to 2010, the Fondazione has organised 24 solo shows at its exhibition spaces in Milan, conceive ...
in
Milan,
attracting significant international attention for its highly innovative character as well as its strong political message. It was awarded the first
Special Achievement Academy Award
The Special Achievement Award is an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most pres ...
in over 20 years by the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Synopsis
The film places the viewer among a group of
migrants
Migrant may refer to:
Human migration
*Human migration
*Emigration, leaving one's resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere
*Immigration, movement into a country with the intent to settle
* Economic migrant, someone who emigrates from o ...
who are led by a coyote across the Mexican border into the U.S. until they are stopped by the border patrol. The story is based on interviews
Alejandro G. Iñárritu did with Mexican and Central American refugees about their life stories.
Benjamin B of ''American Cinematographer'' remarked, "The extraordinary achievements of the virtual reality process has been admired for it brings the viewer back before Lumière brothers invented public screenings with projectors... much like the Edison Kinetoscopes in the Nickelodeon parlors in the early 1900s."
"Virtually present, physically invisible", Iñárritu's sub-title for ''Carne y arena'', describes how VR changes the nature of the audience.
Cast
*
Hector Luis Bustamante
Héctor Luis Bustamante (born March 12, 1972) is a Colombian-American actor. He is best known for his emotionally-charged performance as Pedro Vera in the 2008 original LMN movie '' Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story''. He current stars i ...
* Omar Castaneda
* Toy Lei
Reception
''Flesh and Sand'' (''Carne y arena'') has received an overwhelmingly positive response since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2017. and continues to receive popularity and acclaim exhibiting at the Tlatelolco University Cultural Center in Mexico City, the Fondazione Prada in Milan, and the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Acclaimed for its success in creating a new experience to engage more senses and emotions than film by using VR technology, ''Carne y arena'' was described by
Germano Celant as "a fusion of identities arises: a psychophysical unity in which, by crossing the threshold of the virtual, the human strays into the imaginary and vice versa. It is a revolution in communication in which seeing is transformed into feeling and into a physical engagement with cinema: a transition from the screen to the gaze of the human being, with a total immersion of the senses."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flesh And Sand
2017 films
2017 drama films
American drama short films
2010s Spanish-language films
Films directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Virtual reality films
Films about illegal immigration
2010s English-language films
2010s American films